How many t-shirts do you currently have in your home? Do they have a ridiculous amount of coffee stains or food particles that won’t come out? Have you triedevery laundry detergent in the books and still can’t get the stains out? Have you told yourself, “It’s not worth trying anymore. Let’s just throw this shirt away.”
When we have old t-shirts laying around, we tend to throw them away, because let’s get real, that’s the easiest thing to do, right? Well, yes, but there’s another thing you can do if you really want to keep that favorite colored shirt — You can reuse it!
Here are 10 clever ways you can reuse those old shirts.
- Reusable Bags
Turn your shirt into a reusable bag. You can use the bag for your grocery trips and shopping trips instead of using the plastic ones. Those in-store bags can be a pain to handle sometimes, and might even cost extra, so why not take your homemade crocheted t-shirt bag with you instead?
- Quilts
A homemade quilt or,any homemade gift for that matter, is the best kind of present you can give your loved ones.This might be a fun surprise for parents to give their kids if they are going away to college. Parents can save all of their kids’ sports team shirts (if they played more than one sport in high school), make them all into a quilt, and hand it down to their kids to use as a comforter or blanket for their dorm bed. What incoming college student wouldn’t like a sentimental quilt as a gift from their parents?
- Jewelry
Come on; who doesn’t like jewelry? Transform your shirts into all kinds of handcrafted jewelry such as necklaces, earrings, scarves, and bracelets. To be honest, making all of these things yourself is so much cheaper than going to an expensive jewelry store and buying it all for $400 dollars!
- Pillows
This idea might be a little more difficult, but stuff your reusables into a pillow for yourself or for your kids. When you show your kids the pillow, there’s a chance they might not immediately like it, but I promise that after a while, your kids will enjoy their new pillow.
5. Art
Do you enjoy going to concerts? Do you buy t-shirts at every concert you go to so that you can keep a memory from the concerts? If none of the shirts fit you anymore, you can save them and make an album frame to hang up in your bedroom or anywhere else in your home.
Also, if you’ve been saving your kids’ baby clothes, you can make them into blankets and give them to your children, who can then save those precious blankets for their first baby.
6. Towels
Did you know that reusable t-shirt towels are softer than regular towels? I didn’t. Make your own towels, and use these as alternatives when you can’t find your regular towels anywhere.
- Kids’ Clothes
Is there a mom-to-be in your family who’s expecting her very first child? Make her some homemade kids’ clothes, such as a hat, a bib, and booties, wrap it up in a festive bag with colorful tissue paper, and make it a special gift she will and cherish forever, even when her baby boy or girl is all grown up.
- Pet accessories
Do you have a pets at home, or are you planning to get one? Instead of going to the pet store and spending a ton of money on toys, why not just use your own stuff? Let your pets use your old t-shirts for games of tug-of-war and fetch. All pets love that.
- Donations
If you’re not crafty with your hands, don’t feel bad! You can donate your shirts to places like Goodwill. A small act of kindness, like giving your old shirts away to someone new, really can make a difference. If you’re not crafty, go out there and f donate those shirts to people who need it the most.
- Recycle
Gather up all of those old shirts and recycle them. Here’s the cool thing, though: Your shirts aren’t really going to be thrown away forever; they’re being sent to people who will be able to turn them into jewelry, pillows, quilts, and much more if you can’t make these things yourself.
The next time you decide to throw every single one of your old t shirts away, I hope you will refer back to this article and think twice. You never know how much money you will save if you don’t try any of these ways to reuse your old shirts. Your life and your finances will be so much easier if you follow this advice and reuse your old shirts!
Featured image via Pexels
